Michael, you mentioned that the ZD had a user installable/removable A/A filter, and that you didn't have time to compare the two configurations. But you never mentioned which configuration you actually tested. Curious minds want to know :-)

Thanks,
Hans.

The filter is an extra cost option. The camera comes without the filter.

Sorry, I should have made that clear.

Michael

Thanks for the review, the ZD is very interesting for the price alone.

One question, how do the Mamiya lenses compare with the Blad ones ?

David,

Most Mamiya lenses are about half the price of their Hassy equivalent, or slightly more than that.

A notable excpetion is their new 28 mm f4.5 - due to become available in May - that one will be more expensive than the Hassy equivalent.

Besides, at least in Japan where i live, they are readily available second hand, while the Hassy lenses are basically impossible to find anywhere.

Regards,
Bernard

The mamiya lenses are good. Some are excellent, some not quite as good as the best Hassy or Contax Zeiss. It's a quibble more than anyhting else. Some very fine photographers, such as Charlie Cramer us them for gallery quality fine art landscape work with a P45.

Michael

Thanks for that..

Might have to borrow a ZD for a shoot and see what it's like..

Great Scott,
After reading some of the ZD commentary that was released during 06 3rd and 4th quarter, I thought Mamiya was dead, buried, and had kicked the bucket.
Your review really IMO should be titled the ZD resurrection
jj

To that, I'd like to add that going back in time, history, even, I used to have a 180mm Sekkor (?) for a TLR Mamiya body and then, when I managed to 'upgrade' to a Hasselblad, the first additional lens I bought was a 150 Sonnar. Well, in my opinion as a user, the Mamiya lens was a far nicer optic, for being that wee bit longer (better perspective for head/shoulder shots) as well as for its bokeh, though none of us knew at the time that that was what it was. (Imagine a winking emoticon here.)

Also, pre-digital, Hasselblad lost out big-time to Mamiya's 6x7 format with lots of top fashion and advertising photographers; I doubt it was all simply to do with format and these are lads to whom money had long ceased to mean anything...

Just a thought - Rob C